Marthe and I spent a year trying to surprise each other as we wrote this. The basic idea is that a boy and a girl fall through a portal into a steam-punk adventure drawn by the girl’s wacky Uncle Viminy.

Fresh from having stolen a piece of fruit, Jim, a fourteen-year-old wannabe gangster, bully, and car thief, is run over by a car. What follows is a hilarious, bleak, and ultimately hopeful visit to the afterworld.